2009/08/26 Lesson in Shabbat Service for Friday Evenings

We went back out to Temple Beth-El where Canter Bernard, Rabbi Micah Streiffer, and Rabbi Judy Schindler taught a class on the Shabbat Services for Friday evenings. There are different services for morning and also for holidays.

We arrived about 10 after 7 for the 7:30 class and we found the room without much trouble. Mr. Matt Wells came by to greet the class members about 7:15 but only Don and I were there by then. Anyway it was nice that he thought to come by. A lady brought in lemonade, ice water, and cookies and set up the food on a table.

The class started filling up and Canter Bernard came in and asked someone to go get the class some prayer books for use during class. There was a piano and two chairs in the center of the room.

The Friday night service begins with the Kabbalat Shabbat. This came from the mystics who would go into a field in the evening to welcome the Shabbat as the sun went down. They would welcome Shabbat as people welcome a bride. In today's services, Shabbat is symbolically welcomed by turning to the entrance door (which faces west in synagogues since the altar faces east). Shabbat is a foretaste of the perfect world to come so we welcome it every week.

The Kabbalat Shabbat consists of six Psalms representing the six days of the week gone by. This and other prayers/psalms are chanted in Hebrew by the canter. The congregation often joins in when they are able to use the Hebrew and many are. Some people in class joined in with the canter often during class.

The Psalms making up the Kabbatlat Shabbat are taken from Psalms 95 through 99. In the prayer book, the readings were Psalm 95: 1-7, Psalm 96: 1-6 and 11-13; Psalm 97:1-2 and 10-12; Psalm 98: 1-9; and Psalm 99: 1-5 and 9. The Kabbalat Shabbat is intended to make us think of the week gone by which is busy and difficult to stop the activity of the week. So we are gathering up the week gone by, embracing it, and then letting it go.

The Kabbalat Shabbat begins with the Hebrew version of Psalm 95:1-7 from the Jewish sequence of the Psalms (the Christian sequence may be different) which reads in English:

"Come let us sing joyously to Adonai;
raise a shout for our rock and deliverer;
let us come into His presence with praise;
let us raise a shout for him in song!

For Adonai is a great God,
the great ruler of all divine beings.
In God's hands are the depths of the earth;
the peaks of the mountains are His.
His is the sea, He made it;
and the land, which His hands fashioned.

Come, let us bow down and kneel,
bend the knee before the Lord our maker,
for He is our God,
and we are the people He tends, the flock in His care.
O, if you would but heed God's charge this day"

This chant is followed by the other 5 readings from Psalms included in the Kabbalat Shabbat which are listed above.

The Kabbalat Shabbat is a later addition to the service and the traditional service used to begin with the Bar'chum discussed below.

The Kabbalat Shabbat service is joyful in tenor and mourners do not attend right away after losing a loved one. They attend other services during that time of deep mourning.

Then comes a poem called L'Chah Dodi. The poem is by Shilomo Halere Alkabetz. There are nine verses to this poem but not all nine are done at all services. Usually five or six are chosen and quite often they use the same five or six week after week so the people can get accustomed to them. This is where the congregation stands and faces the back of the church to welcome the bride (Shabbat). (Safardic congregations have a center area where worship is conducted by the rabbi so they cannot face the back as there really isn't one section that is the back.) The L'Chah Dodi was chanted and there were lilting Laladelalalala's added that are nowhere in the Hebrew words in the Prayer Book. Someone asked about that and the answer is that Jewish tradition (nigume - sounds like) goes without words in music. In music, you can get beyond the precise meaning of the text. During the week, we use words all the time. Music doesn't mean anything. The mystics used this to help us get past the words and lift our souls. Some pieces go beyond the words and thus the added ladeladedalalalalala's. It is joyful.

Then we go to Psalms 92 and 93. Psalm 92: 1-7 and 13-16 are chanted and Psalm 93:1-5 is chanted. Psalm 93: 1-5 was demonstrated by the canter. This deals with the completion of creation and 93:1-5 goes:

"Adonai is sovereign,
God is robed in grandeur;
Adonai is robed,
God is girded with strength.
The world stands firm;
it cannot be shaken.
Adonai's throne stands firm from of old;
from eternity You have existed.
The ocean sounds, O Lord,
the ocean sounds its thunder,
the ocean sounds its pounding.
Above the thunder of the mighty waters,
more majestic than the breakers of the sea
is Adonai, majestic on high.
Your decrees are indeed enduring;
holiness befits Your house,
Adonai, for all times."

The next segment of the service is an invitation more than a prayer. It is the Bar'chum and is similar to the call to prayer by the Muslims. This is the call to prayer used in Judaism. Many people stand for this and some people cover their eyes. This is where traditional services began - with the Bar'chum or call to prayer. The previous sections were later additions to the service.

The leader calls out the command (in Hebrew); "Praise Adonai to whom praise is due forever." The congregation replies, "Praise be Adonai to whom praise is due now and forever."

Some of trhe pages of the prayer book have a blue line around it. This is where there are two versions of the same prayer side by side on two pages. You only use one side in this case and you can really choose which to follow. You either follow the right side prayers or the left side prayers but not both. The right side offers the more traditional options for a prayer. The left side gives more interpretive versions of that same prayer. But in any case, one side covers the 2-page spread.

Then comes Ahavat Olam which is a blessing and then the Sh'ma which is central to the service.

Sh'ma is often taught to Jewish children to be said first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It is:

"Hear, O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is One."
Then "Blessed is God's glorious majesty forever and ever."

The Hebrew is:

"Sh'ma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Eched." (This is the Hear, O Israel line).
Then "Baruch shem k'vod mulchutz l'olam va-ed." (This is the Blessed is God's ... line).

In the evening service, readings often talk about darkness coming while the morning services talk about light coming.

In the morning service, you might use the Latimah: Baruch atah, Adonai, hama arivim. which is Blessed are You; Adonai is the beginning.

People often stand for the Sh'ma which reminds us of God's Oneness and is not really a prayer. It is not a prayer to God but a reminder to ourselves of God's Oneness. Sometimes people cover their eyes when saying the Sh'ma. People used to sit for this and bend over and cover eyes to make themselves seem small and also to concentrate on prayer and not be distracted.

Then comes the V'ahavta and the L'maan tizk'rn.

Then the Mi Chamachah which is in Torah and was sang during the escape from Egypt.

So we have Welcomed Shabbat and Praised God. Now we do our petitions. Traditonally, people take 3 steps forward to signify the 3 parts of the service. Before we ask God for things, we sing "Adonai, open up my lips, that my mouth may declare your praise." This prayer focuses your mind since sometimes it is harder than other times to get focused on prayer.

In the prayer book, I spotted these words which seemed worth hanging on to:

"Pray as if everything depended on God. Act as if everything depended on you." I like that.

There is a prayer in the prayer book which is a weekday prayer. In it, you pray for 19 things but the Shabbat prayer only asks for 7. On Shabbat, the petitions are removed. This gives God a rest on Shabbat as well.

Avit V'Imahot: This prayer asks that God bless us because our forebears were good, not because we are. We are remembering our parents here. The Shabbat prayer asks that God resurrect the dead or in reformed thinking, instead of resurrect, ask for renewal. It also asks for God's strength, God's holiness (Holy is the day), it asks that God accept our prayers, then we give a prayer of gratitude, a prayer asking for peace, then silent prayer.

Page 86 of the prayer book shows a prayer for abundance. We can ask God indirectly if we don't want to say something so directly as "Blessed are you, Adonai, who blesses our wants and gives us abundance."

On Friday, the Reformed Temple reads Torah in the middle of the service. It used to be read on Shabbat morning and on Monday, Thursday. So it was read Monday, Thursday, and Saturday so the whole Torah was read once per year. But not as many people attend morning service so the Reformed Temple here reads it on Friday evening when more people are in attendance.

Torah services contain songs that ask for blessings such as "May Torah come forth on Israel" or "May people study war no more". Then comes a sermon-like talk which takes the words read in Torah and the rabbi (or sometimes a learned member of the congregation) talks about the reading.

There is a saying about turning Torah around and around for two reasons: (1) it is read through each year during services and (2) it is on scrolls which turn.

Torah is called the Tree of Life. It is alive to the Jewish people and it is on a scroll which turns on wooden rods. So it is a tree because it nurtures us and we live and grow through it.

Closing prayers. Aleim - We have prayed the whole service and we now need a sense of purpose for going into the world. The first prayer at the end of the service is the Aleim where we praise and thank God who has set us (Jews) apart from others. We give thanks that we have a special purpose and we try and lift the world to a perfect state. We (the Jews) are working for a Messianic Age and we all have a piece of that work to do to make the Messianic Age come about.

Kadesh is a reminder we are all part of a chain in this endeavor to bring about the perfect world. This prayer remembers those who came before us. Mourners Kadesh is what this is called but it does not talk about death. It is a doxology (a prayer in praise of God) and we re-commit ourselves to the work of making the world a better place.

It is:

"Exalted and hallowed be God's great name
in the world which God created, according to plan.
May God's majesty be revealed in the days of our lifetime
and the life of all Israel - speedily, imminently, to which we say Amen.

Blessed be God's great name to all eternity.

Blessed, praised, honored, exlalted, extolled, glorified, adored, and lauded
be the name of the Holy Blessed One beyond all earthly words and songs of blessing,
praise, and comfort. To which we all say Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us and all Israel.
in which we say Amen.

May the One who creates harmony on high, bring peace to us and to all Israel.
To which we say Amen."

On this, class ended and we visited with other class members. I met a lady named Maxine who told me she is taking Hebrew through individual tutoring over the phone. She arranged this through an organization called Partners in Torah.